Since I have professed my love for the banjo before, it will come as no surprise as to how much I like Nelly Furtado’s Powerless. Despite the classic second album “poor ole me lyrics”, the other Nelly has managed to strap her tradem[…]

David Thompson, in his discussion of Carl Franklin as a director in his Autobiographical Dictionary Of Film, mentions how good he is a directing multi-racial films without drawing attention to this aspect. Out Of Time is another addition to this cano[…]

Critics have been moaning that the new live-action Peter Pan dwells far to much on the burgeoning sexuality of Wendy. What the fuck do they think Peter Pan is about if not the horror and fear of adulthood and all that this entails? Other critics have[…]

40. BROADCAST — ‘Colour Me In’
It starts with a lever being thrown on an old calliope machine found in a cave in the middle of an ocean of ice. The frozen gears begin to turn, the painted metal shrieks with stress, rimed lights glow[…]

Sherburne in Chile: photos, worth it for the Jan 4 one alone really![…]

The main reason I never liked football was that I could never play it. Football at school involved skilfully dodging people who were charging towards me – fine had I been a striker, less so as a defender. Nobody in my family liked the game enou[…]

The one saving grace of C4’s Top 100 Worst Singles programme (apart from it being compulsive point-and-shout watching, bah) was the way the director was clearly on the side of POP against the mealy-mouthed mutterings of SMUG BASTARDS. Almost ev[…]

Dave Stelfox‘ stuff on music and cultural context got me thinking a lot towards the end of last year — since he’s brought the subject up again lately, time to reply. Stelfox’ basic point — more attention to content and c[…]

Underated Vegetable of the Week: Parsnips.
I must admit I was never a fan when I was a kid. It sat on the unpopular side of the Christmas dinner plate, relegated even below the sprouts in my pecking order. There was something unsettling about the sw[…]

Why is it that when mainstream Hollywood wants to show rebellious teenage girls, they are always in punk bands? Jamie Leigh Curtis in Freaky Friday would have been a prime age for punk the first time round, and now her daughter idolises the Ramones. […]